Day 1: Hanoi, Vietnam

Arrive at the Hanoi airport. If you have arranged a Uniworld arrival transfer, you will be greeted by a Uniworld representative and transferred to your luxury accommodations, the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel.

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Day 2: Hanoi

Hanoi’s elegant boulevards are lined with trees and handsome buildings, as you'll see on today's fascinating tour of the city. At the same time, this lively cultural center—Vietnam’s capital city—is replete with bustling streets, food vendors, museums, and historic sites, making for an intriguing study in contrasts that rivals any other metropolitan destination.

Featured excursions included in your journey: Hanoi City Tour
Spend the day exploring a city some call Asia’s most beautiful. You’ll visit a complex honoring Ho Chi Minh, founder of modern Vietnam. Also on the agenda: the Temple of Literature, originally built as a Confucian temple in 1070 AD. Six years later on the same grounds, Vietnam’s first university was founded. Today, you can experience the tranquility of its beautiful gardens and pavilions. You can see another aspect of Vietnam’s history if you step into one of the dank cells at the notorious “Hanoi Hilton,” as Hoa Lo, a French colonial-era prison, was known to the American pilots who were held there as prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.

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Day 3: Hanoi, fly to Siem Reap

Enjoy free time in Hanoi before your included flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where you will be transferred to your luxury hotel, the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf & Spa Resort.

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Day 4: Siem Reap

Today is a bucket list kind of day as you explore the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, a gigantic religious complex that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

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Featured excursions included in your journey:  Angkor Wat Temple
Every aspect of Angkor Wat had religious meaning to its builders 900 years ago: the great rectangular moat, the main gate facing the west, the towers topped with stone lotuses, the huge smiling stone heads, the layout of the lanes, and buildings. The largest religious monument in the world, magnificent Angkor Wat is the single most recognizable landmark in Cambodia. It is simply breathtaking in both size and scope and boasts the longest continuous bas-relief in the world. Although Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its importance is so immeasurable, several other conservation organizations have been enlisted to help ensure its protection. And yet, Angkor Wat is just one piece of this enormous complex at the heart of the ancient Khmer Empire (which ruled this region between the ninth and 12th centuries). It was part of a roughly 250-square-mile (64,749-hectare) city that has largely disappeared into the jungle, though excavation efforts are ongoing (recent laser imaging has revealed another, even larger nearby city under the jungle floor that was linked to the temple city).

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Day 5: Siem Reap

Today you will enter the spectacular remnants of Angkor Thom, the royal city. Built during the heyday of the Khmer dynasty in the 12th century, this extraordinary complex of Hindu and Buddhist monuments was once lost to the world for many years, hidden under dense jungle vines.

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Day 6: Siem Reap, Transfer to Kampong Cham (Embark)

Today, you’ll have free time to explore Siem Reap, a place name that means, literally, “Defeat of Siam”— which tells you something of its history. It is the gateway to Angkor, the legendary archaeological site. Later check out of your hotel and transfer via executive motorcoach to Kampong Cham where you'll embark on the beautiful Mekong Jewel—your elegant home for the next seven nights—and set sail on the beautiful Mekong.

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Day 7: Wat Hanchey, Angkor Ban, Phnom Penh

Today is a celebration of Cambodia’s bright future. You’ll meet young children at a local school and friendly villagers in their homes, and have a rare opportunity to receive an unforgettable water blessing from local
Buddhist monks.

Featured excursions included in your journey: Cambodia’s Vibrant Cultural Life
Be ready to answer questions when you visit a local school—because the children love to practice their English—and deepen your understanding of Cambodia when you meet villagers in their homes. You may encounter more children when you stop at a beautifully situated temple complex on a hilltop. Wat Hanchey has incredible views of the Mekong River—you get a real sense of just how huge the river is as you see it stretch into the distance, looking more like a great lake than a river. The complex itself is a remarkable mixture of the ancient and the new: An eighth-century Angkor temple and a modern Buddhist temple share the area—along with playful gibbons and enormous, colorfully painted concrete statues. Before your departure you’ll receive a traditional water blessing from the local monks—one of the most personal and touching moments you’ll experience on this journey.

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Day 8: Phnom Penh

Today, you’ll discover the thriving capital of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. It stands at the juncture of three captivating rivers and represents a dizzying blend of architectural styles—French colonial, Khmer, modern, and everything in between. Here, you’ll find an alluring riverside esplanade amid numerous bewitching Buddhist temples, palaces, and artifacts.

Featured excursions included in your journey: Cambodia’s Capital—Phnom Penh
A tuk tuk will whisk you down wide boulevards laid out by French colonial administrators in the 1860s, when Cambodia was part of French Indochina, past old French-influenced buildings, beautiful pagodas, and (with a bit of luck) saffron-robed monks, on your way to the Royal Palace. Spacious grounds—you might notice a resemblance to formal French parterres—are home to a group of structures featuring classic Khmer architecture. Each one has a specific function: The Throne Hall, with its spires and flying celestials, hosts royal coronations, while the Moonlight Pavilion was intended as a venue for dance performances (but is now used for receptions). The famed Temple of the Emerald Buddha, commonly known as the Silver Pagoda, boasts a floor-covering of 5,329 silver tiles. In the center of the pagoda are both an emerald and a gold Buddha statue (the latter of which is studded with nearly 10,000 diamonds). You’ll also tour the National Museum, which features an incomparable collection of the nation’s archaeological and artistic treasures. Following the museum visit, hop back on a tuk tuk for an orientation tour through Phnom Penh, ending at the pier. Your guide will point out stops of interest along the way to give you ideas on how to spend your afternoon at leisure in town.

Day 9: Angkor Ban, Wat Hanchey, Kampong Cham
Today’s featured excursion may be the most profound and memorable experience of your entire journey. You’ll learn about the infamous Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge and visit a former school-turned-prison that is now a genocide museum. 

 

Featured excursions included in your journey: The Killing Fields—Tragedy and Reconciliation in Cambodia
It’s hard to reconcile the pastoral serenity of the orchards and rice fields surrounding Choeung Ek with the horrific mass executions that took place here during the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge, yet the memorial stupa filled with the skulls of Pol Pot’s victims tells the tale. These were the Killing Fields, where more than 17,000 men, women and children were slaughtered and buried in mass graves. First, however, they were tortured in Security Prison 21 (also known as S-21), a former high school on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which you will also visit today. The guards and staff of the prison were mostly adolescent males—aged 15 to 19—among whom was a young photographer whose job was to document the prisoners. Though many of his photos were destroyed, 6,000 of them remain, displayed on the walls here; as you look at these portraits, you’ll see grief, fear, and defiance—and you’ll be heartbroken to learn that out of the thousands held here, only seven survived. Those who were killed at Choeung Ek were just a small fraction of the almost two million Cambodians
who died in a three-year period between 1975 and the beginning of 1979.

Day 10: Cruising the Mekong River, Hong Ngu
You leave Cambodia behind and cross into Vietnam today, delving into a region where traditional and modern lifestyle elements mingle: Agriculture may still reign supreme, but TV satellite dishes dot rooftops of houses built on stilts. You'll visit the local island village of Hong Ngu, a major producer of the traditional Khmer scarves located not far from the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Since they’re woven in many homes around the village, you’ll have the opportunity to see the process first-hand. You’ll also stop at a local temple dedicated to a unique religion founded in this area of Vietnam, Hoa Hoa.

Day 11: Gieng Island, Sa Dec
Following breakfast, you'll venture to Gieng Island, where you’ll experience how a local family makes incense sticks and the conical hat. Later, your journey continues via sampan, where you’ll observe the daily routines of the villagers in Sa Dec and visit a colorful temple, the home of Mr. Huynh Thuy Le.

Day 12: Vinh Long, Tien Loi (Ben Tre), My Tho
Today, you'll witness the hustle and bustle of delta river life on a unique excursion created exclusively for Uniworld guests, where you can see how local farmers weave sedge hats, decorate bonsais, and more.

Day 13: My Tho (Disembark), Transfer to Ho Chi Minh City
​Experience how ancient history melds with the boisterous present in Vietnam’s largest city, where skyscrapers tower over ancient temples and motorbikes putter along picturesque alleys.

Day 14: Ho Chi Minh City
Today’s featured excursion provides a fascinating glimpse of the Viet Cong’s vast network of incredibly narrow tunnels dating back to the Vietnam War.

Day 15: Depart Ho Chi Minh City
If you have arranged a Uniworld departure transfer, you will be transferred to Tan Son Nhat International Airport for your flight home. Or continue your tour with an extraordinary optional extension program.

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PRICING (includes $260 port charges)